Coronavirus: Haiti Facing a Wave

The last time I wrote about Haiti was this January. At the time, I was wondering about the lack of COVID-19 spread within the country. It was one of those countries early on that I felt for sure would face difficulty dealing with the virus. Yet per Worldometer, their next door neighbor, Dominican Republic, has had to deal with 11x the number of deaths as Haiti even though their populations are very similar. Back in January, it appeared that Haiti might be dealing with a second wave, but that wave quieted down. 

They're a poor country that has done very well at keep COVID-19 under control up until now. Some 5 months later; however, it looks like the country is dealing with a wave that at least matches what happened in May and June of 2020 and based on a couple articles I've read is worse than that wave.

Reuters via US News & World Report (June 9) reports:

COVID-19 treatment centers closed for lack of patients, Haitians resumed life as normal, and the government hesitated to even accept its allotment of free AstraZeneca vaccines through the U.N.-backed COVAX mechanism due to safety and logistical concerns.

Now, though, as some countries are already moving into a post-pandemic phase thanks to vaccination campaigns, Haiti is grappling with its first serious outbreak.

Coronavirus: Haiti Still Avoiding a Major Outbreak

There are certain countries that I thought would be overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases and deaths. One of those countries was Haiti, which at this point in time, I was wrong. I'm not the only person who thought that would occur, of course.

I last checked in on Haiti back in October. I figured it would be time to take another look. The Miami Herald (Dec 16) investigates this situation:

“Sincerely, I don’t have an explanation as to why,” [Dr. Sophia Cherestal Wooley, deputy medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in Port-au-Prince] said. “We cannot say that the virus isn’t in circulation and I don’t think Haiti has a different virus that’s circulating . . . ”

. . . This week, health workers on the front lines of the pandemic were warned that the country may be heading into a second wave. Not only is the country experiencing an uptick in laboratory confirmed cases, but the positivity rate has gone from almost 9 percent in November to almost 16 percent last week. The majority of the cases are coming mostly from the United States, particularly Florida, and the Dominican Republic.

. . . Even anecdotally, the country isn’t seeing the kind of death toll it saw just 10 years ago when cholera hit, and medical professionals were overwhelmed with corpses and deathly ill patients..

Coronavirus: Haiti with Minimum Deaths?

I was sure that Haiti would be heavily impacted by COVID-19, but at the moment it looks like this thought was wrong. Haiti Times (Oct 5): reports:

Back in April, public health experts projected 1,000 deaths per day would occur by May in Haiti, whose population stands at more than 11 million. But the numbers recorded by the government have not come anywhere near these levels. 

Per Worldometer, Haiti doesn't even have 500 deaths. The article admits that there could be under-counting of deaths, but if there were 1,000 deaths per day, I'm sure I would find news articles about how graves were being dug across the country. For example, another poor country I've worried about is Yemen. And though per Worldometer there have been few official cases or deaths (actually more deaths than in Haiti), there are anecdotal evidence of significant numbers of deaths such as nearly 100 healthcare workers. 

Coronavirus: What's Happening In Haiti?

On March 19th, the first two cases of coronavirus were detected in Haiti. What has happened since that point? I didn't find many recent articles about Haiti while searching the Internet, but I did come across a couple, which I'll discuss below.

At least per Worldometer, the COVID-19 case count is around 6,000. Now, of course, at this point we can assume the actual case count is much higher. And even though the case count is no doubt far higher, news reports are actually indicating that there might be some good news for the country.

Coronavirus: Haiti

Back on March 20, France 24 wrote that Haiti reported their first 2 cases of COVID-19.

President Jovenel Moise announced Haiti's first two cases of novel coronavirus on Thursday as his government adopted extraordinary measures to contain its spread.

"We have found the two first cases of coronavirus in our national territory," Moise said during an address televised on state media.

Immediately, the country implement a curfew, banned gathers of greater than 10 people, closed boarders and schools. That is an immediate action over just two cases.